HTML links

Links are used to create connections to other documents and other resources such as images or sound files on the world wide web.

This lesson focuses on:

The <a> tag

The <a> tag

The <a> (anchor) tag is the tag used to create links on a webpage.

Attributes of the <a> tag:

href
The href attribute denotes the webpage or resource to link to.

Syntax:
```
<a href="url">text that will be displayed as the link</a>
```
This example will link to www.google.com:
```
<a href="http://www.google.com">google.com</a>
```
Output:

google.com

Clicking on the link will take you to www.google.com
target
The target attribute denotes where a link will open. By default, it will open in the same window, but you can set it to open in a new window by setting the target attribute to "_blank"

Example:
```
<a href="http://www.lycos.com" target="_blank">
Check out the Lycos search engine!
</a>
```
Output:

Check out the Lycos search engine!

Clicking on the link will open www.lycos.com in a new window.
name
The name attribute denotes a specific part of a webpage to jump to - a named anchor.

Syntax for a named anchor:
```
<a name="anchor_name">text that will be displayed</a>
```
To link to a named anchor, add a # symbol and the name of the anchor to the end of a URL.
Example:
```
<a href="http://www.somewebsite.com/files/file1.php
#data">
See the data
</a>
```
This example will jump to the 'data' section on the page located at www.somewebsite.com/files/file1.php. The named anchor at the 'data' section would look like this:
```
<a name="data">Data</a>
```
You can also link to an anchor from within the document where the anchor is located. For example, a link to the 'archive' section on the page located at www.somewebsite.com/files1/file.php would look like this:
```
<a href="#archive">See archive</a>
```
The named anchor at the 'archive' section would look like this:
```
<a name="archive">Archive</a>
```

Examples

Linking to other websites
This example demonstrates linking to other websites.

Linking to pages in other directories
This example demonstrates linking to pages in other directories.

See more HTML links examples

Exercises

Create a page that links to various search engines (google, yahoo, altavista, lycos, etc). [Click here to see solution]

Create a page that links to five different pages on different websites that should all open in a new window. [Click here to see solution]

See more HTML links exercises